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they weren't distracted by Angry Birds or Facebook. Her facility
solved this by buying tablets and pre-loading them with apps the staff
needed, including drug reference ones like Epocrates and
Micromedex, Webster's Dictionary, Google Translate, M&M Clinical
Anesthesiology, Convert Units Free and Medscape.
"For me, it gives peace and comfort that it's for that patient," says
Ms. Ertel. "They needed to have the apps to do their job."
A quick online search shows there are hundreds of medical apps
D I G I T A L O R
Google Glass may offer several benefits to
those who wear it in surgery, including
increased situational awareness and patient
safety, a new study suggests.
A pilot study by the Department of Surgery
at the Stanford University School of Medicine
tested whether surgery residents who wore
Google Glass showing patients' vital signs
during surgery performed any differently than
those using traditional monitors. Surgery resi-
dents participated in standardized thoracosto-
my tube placement and bronchoscopy simula-
tion scenarios in the study. Traditional vital
signs monitors were available during all procedures, but some residents
were randomly given Google Glass with VitalStream, which streams live
vital signs and alarms directly into the glass-wearing surgeon's view.
Those wearing Google Glass recognized critical vital sign changes up to
10 seconds sooner those who only used traditional monitors.
— Kendal Gapinski
GOOGLE GLASS
Benefits of Live-Streaming Vitals onto Eyewear
GOOGLE GLASS Could the
wearable technology be the
next big thing in surgery?
